7:45 p.m. – There really is no new “news” coming out of the networks or elsewhere, so I’m not going to open a separate post yet. You can follow developments in the Twitter feed below. Early speculation often is wrong, so let’s wait for the facts.

University of Mobile’s Cross Country Coach, who was near the finish line of the Boston Marathon when a series of explosions went off, said he thought it was odd there were bomb sniffing dogs at the start and finish lines.

“They kept making announcements to the participants do not worry, it’s just a training exercise,” Coach Ali Stevenson told Local 15.

Stevenson said he saw law enforcement spotters on the roofs at the start of the race. He’s been in plenty of marathons in Chicago, D.C., Chicago, London and other major metropolitan areas but has never seen that level of security before.

“Evidently, I don’t believe they were just having a training exercise,” Stevenson said. “I think they must have had some sort of threat or suspicion called in.”

Banned, are you really that obtuse? Israeli independence day, a Saudi national held as a suspect, US perceived as a strongly pro-Israel country. Can you connect the dots now? Seems to me this is an act of terrorism, plain and simple.

Call it killing two sons of apes, pigs, and monkeys with one bomb, Banned. Today is Little Satan’s Independence Day, and what better time to hit the Great Satan whose people support the Little Satan? Besides, most of those Africans who run are not Muslim. If they were good Muslims, they would be running fully covered.

Perps, if the gas leak scenario is out the window, will be difficult to pin down and find.

Only hope is that there were surveillance videos. If perps were to blame, once caught, fair trial, convicted with evidence, beheading OR if one prefers, hanging in Boston Common immediately after said trial.

I would bet the explosives used were high-order (very fast) explosives.

Lower order explosives, including gun powder, do not rip limbs off unless you are quite close (or even then). These did. Big limbs. This is the kind of injury you see in bus bombings from Israel.

These were definitely bombs, and were intended to cause mass casualties. The older runner guy you see in the first explosion video tape was not “blown down”. He went down like someone hit with a projectile. Watch the other people, who were not the least “blown down”.

Plus, as benning76 posts lower in the thread, there is a possible suspect (“person of interest”) in custody in the hospital nearby. Suffering from shrapnel wounds. Not sure if victim or suspect quite yet, says BPD.

Scary but true, my very first thought when I heard this news was, “Great! Now the media has something else to focus on other than the Gosnell murder case.”

Don’t let the media forget Gosnell! And say prayers to those who are injured or missing family during the confusion in Boston atm. We are living the Chinese curse, “may you live in ‘interesting’ times.”

A Saudi national is being held. Says Drudge and the NYPost. I wonder if he came in without a visa, since Obama has deemed the Saudis are to be granted that favor of entering the USA without needing a visa.